of the House of Lords at dinner with my Lord, who after dinner went away for shore. Mr. Morland, now Sir Samuel, was here on board, but I do not find that my Lord or any body did give him any respect, he being looked upon by him and all men as a knave. Among others he betrayed Sir Rich. Willis
[This is somewhat different to the usual account of Morland’s
connection with Sir Richard Willis. In the beginning of 1659
Cromwell, Thurloe, and Willis formed a plot to inveigle Charles II.
into England and into the hands of his enemies. The plot was
discussed in Thurloe’s office, and Morland, who pretended to be
asleep, heard it and discovered it. Willis sent for Morland, and
received him in a cellar. He said that one of them must have
discovered the plot. He laid his hand upon the Bible and swore that
he had not been the discoverer, calling upon Morland to do the same.
Morland, with presence of mind, said he was ready to do so if Willis
would give him a reason why he should suspect him. By this ready
answer he is said to have escaped the ordeal (see Birch’s “Life of
Thurloe”).]
that married Dr. F. Jones’s daughter, that he had paid him £1000 at one time by the Protector’s and Secretary Thurloe’s order, for intelligence that he sent concerning the King. In the afternoon my Lord called me on purpose to show me his fine cloathes which are now come hither, and indeed are very rich as gold and silver can make them, only his sword he and I do not like. In the afternoon my Lord and I walked together in the coach two hours, talking together upon all sorts of discourse: as religion, wherein he is, I perceive, wholly sceptical, as well as I, saying, that indeed the Protestants as to the Church of Rome are wholly fanatiques: he likes uniformity and form of prayer; about State-business, among other things he told me that his conversion to the King’s cause (for so I was saying that I wondered from what time the King could look upon him to become his friend), commenced from his being in the Sound, when he found what usage he was likely to have from a Commonwealth. My Lord, the Captain, and I supped in my Lord’s chamber, where I did perceive that he did begin to show me much more respect than ever he did yet. After supper, my Lord sent for me, intending to have me play at cards with him, but I not knowing cribbage, we fell into discourse of many things, till it was so rough sea and the ship rolled so much that I was not able to stand, and so he bid me go to bed.
16th. Soon as I was up I went down to be trimmed below in the great cabin, but then come in some with visits, among the rest one from Admiral Opdam,
[The admiral celebrated in Lord Dorset’s ballad, “To all you ladies
now at land.”
“Should foggy Opdam chance to know
Our sad and dismal story;
The Dutch would scorn so weak a foe,
And quit their fort at Goree
For what resistance can they find
From men who’ve left their hearts behind?”—B.]
who spoke Latin well, but not French nor English, to whom my Lord made me to give his answer and to entertain; he brought my Lord a tierce of wine and a barrel of butter, as a present from the Admiral. After that to finish my trimming, and while I was doing of it in comes Mr. North very sea-sick from shore, and to bed he goes. After that to dinner, where Commissioner Pett was come to take care to get all things ready for the King on board. My Lord in his best suit, this the first day, in expectation to wait upon the King. But Mr. Edw. Pickering coming from the King brought word that the King would not put my Lord to the trouble of coming to him; but that he would come to the shore to look upon the fleet to-day, which we expected, and had our guns ready to fire, and our scarlet waistcloathes out and silk pendants, but he did not come. My Lord and we at ninepins this afternoon upon the Quarterdeck, which was very pretty sport. This evening came Mr. John Pickering on board, like an ass, with his feathers and new suit that he had made at the Hague. My Lord very angry for his staying on shore, bidding me a little before to send to him, telling me that he was afraid that for his father’s sake he might have some mischief done him, unless he used the General’s name. To supper, and after supper to cards. I stood by and looked on till 11 at night and so to bed. This afternoon Mr. Edwd. Pickering told me in what a sad, poor condition for clothes and money the King was, and all his attendants, when he came to him first from my Lord, their clothes not being worth forty shillings the best of them.
[Andrew Marvell alludes to the poor condition, for clothes and
money, in which the King was at this time, in “A Historical Poem”:—
“At length, by wonderful impulse of fate,
The people call him back to help the State;
And what is more, they send him money, too,
And clothe him all from head to foot anew.”]
And how overjoyed the King was when Sir J. Greenville brought him some money; so joyful, that he called the Princess Royal and Duke of York to look upon it as it lay in the portmanteau before it was taken out. My Lord told me, too, that the Duke of York is made High Admiral of England.
17th. Up early to write down my last two days’ observations. Dr. Clerke came to me to tell me that he heard this morning, by some Dutch that are come on board already to see the ship, that there was a Portuguese taken yesterday at the Hague, that had a design to kill the King. But this I heard afterwards was only the mistake upon one being observed to walk with his sword naked, he having lost his scabbard. Before dinner Mr. Edw. Pickering and I, W. Howe, Pim, and my boy—[Edward Montagu, afterwards Lord Hinchinbroke.]—to Scheveling, where we took coach, and so to the Hague, where walking, intending to find one that might show us the King incognito, I met with Captain Whittington (that had formerly brought a letter to my Lord from the Mayor of London) and he did promise me to do it, but first we went and dined at a French house, but paid 16s. for our part of the club. At dinner in came Dr. Cade, a merry mad parson of the King’s. And they two after dinner got the child and me (the others not being able to crowd in) to see the King, who kissed the child very affectionately. Then we kissed his, and the Duke of York’s, and the Princess Royal’s hands. The King seems to be a very sober man; and a very splendid Court he hath in the number of persons of quality that are about him, English very rich in habit. From the King to the Lord Chancellor,
[On January 29th, 1658, Charles II. entrusted the Great Seal to Sir
Edward Hyde, with the title of Lord Chancellor, and in that
character Sir Edward accompanied the King to England.]
who did lie bed-rid of the gout: he spoke very merrily to the child and me. After that, going to see the Queen of Bohemia, I met with Dr. Fullers whom I sent to a tavern with Mr. Edw. Pickering, while I and the rest went to see the Queen—[Henrietta Maria.]—who used us very respectfully; her hand we all kissed. She seems a very debonaire, but plain lady. After that to the Dr.‘s, where we drank a while or so. In a coach of a friend’s of Dr. Cade we went to see a house of the Princess Dowager’s in a park about half-a-mile or a mile from the Hague, where there is one, the most beautiful room for pictures in the whole world. She had here one picture upon the top, with these words, dedicating it to the memory of her husband:—“Incomparabili marito, inconsolabilis vidua.”
[Mary, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of Charles I., and widow of
William of Nassau, Prince of Orange. She was not supposed to be
inconsolable, and scandal followed her at the court of Charles II.,
where she died of small-pox, December 24th, 1660.]
Here I met with Mr. Woodcock of Cambridge, Mr. Hardy and another, and Mr. Woodcock beginning we had two or three fine songs, he and I, and W. Howe to the Echo, which was very pleasant, and the more because in a heaven of pleasure and in a strange country, that I never was taken up more with a sense of pleasure in my life.